It is well known that the consumption of fiber in the diet is beneficial to human health. Since this discovery, the number of products containing large amounts of fiber has increased, and products with 100% fiber have been commonly made.
From the point of view of digestion, dietary fiber stimulates the peristaltic movements of the digestive tract and improving the displacement through the tract. Also, fiber has the attribute of absorbing fat and reducing its assimilation.
There are several products on the market that an individual can use to increase one's intake of dietary fiber. These products are available in the form of pills, powder, and tablets. There are also several breakfast cereals on the market that contain a significant amount of raw fiber. Of what is known about the digestive process of the human body and the functioning of the organs, it is known of the need of raw fiber being present in the bolus to assure its presence in chyme. It is in the small and large intestines that dietary fiber predominantly accomplishes its action.
Pills and tablets consumed in that way are not quite convenient, since after taking them, fiber will be present only in a small part of the bolus and therefore, just in a reduced fraction of chyme.
The consumption of the high fiber breakfast cereals would be most beneficial if the cereal was consumed in small portions periodically throughout the day with each meal. However this is not possible because of the organoleptic attributes of such cereals.
The solution to introducing raw fiber in every consumed aliment was to include fiber in an aliment which could be easily consumed with soup as well as with stew. The outcome of this reasoning is to choose tortilla as a support or incipient of raw fiber.
The manufacturing process of "tortillas" has been known since the ancient Mayas times. There are mainly three stages to tortilla manufacturing: (1) The "nixtamalization" (to obtain the "nixtamal"), (2) the grinding of the nixtamal (to obtain the paste), and (3) the manufacture of the "tortilla" (using the paste).
Each of the three manufacturing stages has had their own technical progress as to the different elements being used in them, but one of the nutrimental characteristics of corn was what strongly attracted the attention of the studious: The lack of lysine and tryptophane in the main protein existing in corn: Zein.
Even though the "nixtamalization" stages improves the proportions of the different aminoacids in corn proteins, the nutritional problem was still there, several investigations were performed to test the addition of different substances rich in protein to the paste of "maiz nixtamalizado". The substances tested were, sesame seed and fish powder, among others. The conclusion from the studies was unanimous: corn paste does not allow the addition of any of the tested substances without altering the organoleptic attributes of the tortillas.
From the first experiments, it could also be concluded that paste also changes its organoleptic attributes when dietary fiber is added to it, just as it happens with the previously mentioned powders.
The main changes concerned the mechanical attributes of the "tortilla": The tortillas were less flexible (they tore when making a "taco"), and too impermeable (the tortillas fell into pieces when cooking certain dishes such as "enchiladas"), and of the paste: The corn paste lost its flexibility (or gum-like body) when dietary fiber was added.
Another important characteristic of the "tortilla" is its shelf life. High fiber tortillas must have a shelf life of about one week to be practical which can only be accomplished by using preservatives.
The "tortillas" that are presently commercially available contain preservatives that cause the product to taste and smell unpleasant, having also the disadvantage of tortillas breaking easily, being very permeable and having an unpleasant appearance.